Nasdaq's $40M payout not the final answer for small investors

Nasdaq is going to spend $40 million to compensate for trading losses caused by glitches during Facebook's stock market debut last month, but that doesn't mean much for small investors who got burned.

Most average investors put in orders for Facebook shares on opening day through brokerages like Fidelity, Charles Schwab (SCHW) and Scottrade, but those firms aren't direct recipients of Nasdaq's payout.

"Nasdaq's accommodation program is an agreement between the exchange and its member firms that directly routed their orders to Nasdaq," said Michael Cianfrocca, a Charles Schwab spokesman. "As Schwab did not route orders directly to Nasdaq, we are not participating in this program, however, we continue to assess individual client situations and address concerns as best as we can."

Brokerage firms like Schwab route their orders through so-called market makers like Knight Capital (KCG), Citadel, Citigroup (C) and UBS (UBS), which are the Nasdaq (NDAQ) member firms that will get paid from the $40 million pot.

Fidelity spokesman Stephen Austin said that the brokerage has "successfully resolved a large number of disputes" of clients' botched Facebook orders directly with market makers. He added that Fidelity is continuing to work closely with market makers and others "to clarify what additional resolution, if any, might be available for our customers."

Scottrade said it is carefully reviewing the details of Nasdaq's plan "to understand how it may impact the firm and our clients and determine the appropriate course of action."

Meanwhile, shares of Facebook (FB) continue to spiral downward. The stock hit an all-time low of $25.52 on Wednesday. Though shares have bounced back from that level, they remain 30% below the IPO price of $38.

Hibah Yousuf is a reporter at CNNMoney, where she covers stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies trading across the globe, as well as corporate earnings and other markets-related news. Prior to joining the site in 2009, she interned at Money Magazine.